Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has expressed doubts about the trustworthiness of the main-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Nasheed made comments regarding the party while speaking during the ongoing Parliament debate on a referendum on changing the Maldives' government system.
Last month, The Democrats, a breakaway faction of the MDP, submitted a resolution to the Parliament seeking a referendum on changing the government system. The Democrats is the only political party advocating for the change. Meanwhile, Nasheed seems to be the only prominent leader supporting the change.
Ahead of the second round of the presidential election, the Parliament subsequently approved to conduct a referendum before the 30th of this month, with the support of MDP MPs. Some MDP MPs claimed they backed the resolution with the expectation that The Democrats would endorse President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was seeking re-election, in the second round of voting. However, The Democrats ultimately chose not to support any candidate in the second round.
At Tuesday's Parliament sitting, Nasheed said the Democrats did not endorse any candidate for the second round at the request of MDP. To ensure the Democrats' compliance, the MDP obtained a letter from the Democrats assuring them the same, but the MDP has not responded to that letter to date, Nasheed disclosed. The Democrats issued the letter expecting MDP to support the referendum, according to Nasheed.
“I am not saying that the MDP is the kind of party that can be trusted at the moment,” Nasheed said.
Although Nasheed hopes to change the government system from presidential to parliamentary, outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who controls the MDP at this time, on Monday said he supports a presidential system. Interestingly, while Nasheed questioned MDP's trustworthiness, he earlier this week requested to rejoin the party after leaving it to join The Democrats.
